While the What Next team spends some time with their families this week, we revisit some of 2023’s biggest, strangest, and best stories. Regularly scheduled programming resumes Jan. 2.

Everybody loves pandas—and China knows it. As we say goodbye to the National Zoo’s pandas, we look back at 50 years of “panda diplomacy” and consider its uncertain future.

Guest: E. Elena Songster, author of Panda Nation: The Construction and Conservation of China’s Modern Icon and professor of environmental history of modern China at St. Mary’s College of California.
Originally aired Sept. 27.
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Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back? | 2023 In Review

The problem with the news right now? It’s everywhere. And each day, it can feel like we’re all just mindlessly scrolling. It’s why we created What Next. This short daily show is here to help you make sense of things. When the news feels overwhelming, we’re here to help you answer: What next? Look for new episodes every weekday morning.

News

Politics

News Commentary

Daily News

She was a city clerk for Rochester Hills, Michigan. After Trump lost the state, the threats started coming.

Guest: Tina Barton, Senior Elections Expert, The Elections Group


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Election Workers in the Crosshairs

“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige. 

Guest: 
Luke Winkie, Slate staff writer who published “The Poop Broker.”

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TBD | Would You Buy Poop On the Internet?

His law firm won a $73 million dollar settlement against Remington on behalf of nine Sandy Hook families. Now he’s filing a lawsuit against the gunmaker Daniel Defense, the video game company Activision, and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, on behalf of families in Uvalde.

Guest: Josh Koskoff, attorney

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Podcast production by Evan Campbell, Patrick Fort, and Anna Phillips.
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TBD | He’s Suing Big Tech Over Uvalde

In light of late-breaking news, we present this conversation from our colleagues at Amicus:

After six weeks of arguments and testimony and a little under 12 hours of deliberation, a Manhattan jury voted to convict former President Trump of 34 felony counts in his hush money trial. Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s jurisprudence editor Jeremy Stahl who was in court for the historic guilty verdict and has followed the case over the past six weeks. 
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Amicus: Trump Guilty on All 34 Counts

How one producer—now freed from his 20-year non-disclosure agreement—regrets his role shaping Donald Trump’s image on The Apprentice. 

Guest: Bill Pruitt, producer for seasons 1 and 2 of The Apprentice.

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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme and Rob Gunther.
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Wait, China’s Taking Our Pandas Back? | 2023 In Review

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